Nickel: Shorewood athlete will become first female swimmer representing The Gambia at Olympics

The college swim season ended in February, but sophomore Aminata Barrow is in the midst of a grueling training regimen right now. Long sets in the morning and more in the afternoon, followed by weightlifting, and that dreadful pull-up bar, too.

It has taken discipline for this pre-med student to keep working through this tough stretch on a quiet summer campus at Brown University, where the whole town, it seems, has headed for the beach.

And then a little reminder pops up of why she's doing all of this. She needs to submit her clothing and dress measurements for an Olympic opening ceremony outfit.

Barrow , a state champion from Shorewood High School, will swim for The Gambia , the tiny country in western Africa, in the Summer Games in Paris.

In doing so, she will become the first female swimmer ever to represent The Gambia in the Olympics .

“I'm very excited,” Barrow said during a recent phone call in between practices. “Swimming is not a very diverse sport. I can name five girls maybe that I've raced, or trained with, in my entire life that looked like me. Hopefully this will like inspire the younger ones – especially in that region of the world – to start swimming.”

Barrow’s mother, Monna Arvinen-Barrow , is originally from Finland, and Barrow’s father, Kemo Barrow, is from The Gambia. Amie wasn’t born in the United States, but she and Monna have lived in Shorewood for more than a decade. Monna is an associate professor at UW-Milwaukee and Amie was a top student and swimmer at Shorewood High School.

More: This Shorewood swimmer wanted to challenge herself more. That led Amie Barrow to eye the 2024 Olympic Games.

And this is only part of Barrow’s unique story. Barrow walked on to the swim program at Brown University, where she is also in the eight-year program in Liberal Medical Education .

Paris is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and while Barrow is hoping for a personal record in her event – the 100-meter breaststroke, with the preliminary races on July 28 – she will have already realized this major cultural and athletic achievement just by getting to the starting deck.

"I took Amie baby swimming when she was 4 years old and I will never forget the expression of joy she had on her face then," Monna said. "Today when she talks about swimming, I still see the same joy."

Barrow started on this path last summer when she competed at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, and racing there made her eligible for Olympic consideration. She swam a personal best in the 100 breaststroke of 1 minute 14.32 seconds.

Then she did well at the Africa Aquatics Swimming & Open Water Championships in Angola in April and May. She swam the 100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke and the 200 individual medley and made the A final in all three events. She finished in fourth place in the 200 breaststroke.

The experience was unforgettable. It was the first time she ever raced in an outdoor pool, and when she was doing the backstroke of her IM, her sight lines were always different.

“If it's really sunny, the sun's kind of in your face, but then at night, in the finals, it's dark. You can't even see clouds,” Barrow said with a laugh. “You're just staring at nothing.”

By swimming internationally, Barrow met the required qualifications to make The Gambia's swim team; in fact, she is the women's swim team. She will have a teammate from the men's side, Ousman Jobe , who was born and raised in The Gambia but who has been training in Thailand. Barrow's confirmation as the country's representative was noted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday and the Gambian National Olympic Committee (GNOC) announced its confirmation Wednesday.

Barrow a lone wolf, but draws from her support team

What's remarkable is that Barrow has met a few officials from the Gambian Olympic Committee and worked briefly with a coach from The Gambia when she raced in Angola. But Barrow has mostly pioneered her own way on this Olympic journey with her small but mighty support team: her coaches at Brown and in Shorewood, and her mom.

A Shorewood Class of 2022 grad, Barrow still works with club coach Dave Westfahl when she goes home, even for just a week or two. At Brown, she’s gotten great training plans and coaching from Kate Kovenock and Niko Fantakis this summer.

But when she's traveling and sometimes racing, she's on her own a lot.

"She really is a pro in how she goes about her business," Fantakis said. "And that's what suits her really well, to be able to go to some of these very, very far off meets and be really successful as a team of her and her mom."

“I think part of that is just the sport – you have to be very independent,” Barrow said. “But really in the back of my mind, I'm just thinking about what coaches at home (advised).”

This summer at Brown is another opportunity. Without mom's home cooking, she's learning to make her own pesto pasta with grilled chicken, and can get proper rest now that she's finally in her own apartment. She can always retreat to "The Swamp," though, an ugly green-colored house on campus where she's befriended a lot of upperclassmen teammates. And her work at the pool is beneficial.

"Brown has a long-course pool which is ultimately what I'm racing in," Barrow said of switching from swimming in yards during the college season to meters at the Olympics. "You can train yards and race in meters, but it helps to train in meters for sure. And I also have my varsity weight room here and my athletic trainer and it's just a better training environment."

Success at Brown has helped set Barrow on Olympic path

Barrow is already a high achiever at Brown.

"I've never seen someone quite with the trajectory that Amie has had," Fantakis said. "To make a conference team as a walk-on is a huge feat. I've never had someone who we haven't recruited flourish so much in the college system. There's walk-ons; they typically tend to maybe take a backseat. Amie came in and really just latched on to this opportunity and said, 'I'm going make the most of this.'"

At Brown she's also gotten a lot stronger. Last season she swam personal bests in both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes at the Ivy League championships, where she took seventh in the 200 and 13th in the 100.

"My club team focused a lot on technique with an aerobic base," Barrow said. "I think I was able to get pretty good with that, which is really good because if I could keep good technique and then gain strength, I'll go even faster.

"So at this point in my career, I feel like lifting is kind of what I have to focus on, especially in the shorter stuff. Like the 100 that I'm swimming in Paris, Kate was kind of talking about it, like you really have to buy into the weight room. So that's what I've been doing.”

Barrow departs for France in a few weeks and will make the Olympic Village her home. As a swimmer a little bit more geared toward the 200, she's known for her charge on the back side. Look for that in her 100; her coach Niko said the last 25 meters or so she may be pretty close with the other swimmers but might find her hand on the wall first in that heat.

Barrow's mom will be in Paris, too, cheering for her, as will Barrow's high school coach, Cassie Rodriguez , who has been a strong influence as well.

"This journey, I would say, has been a privilege," Monna said. "To watch her grow over the 20 years, find her passions, to guide and support her during the lows, and celebrate with her during the highs – I am so proud of everything Amie has achieved. But more importantly I am extremely proud of her ability to embrace and trust the journey, and find joy in the process."

Amie Barrow reminds us why people love the Olympic Games. There will be endless stories of triumph to come out of Paris, and big medal tallies for the supersized countries, but when the latest chapter of the greatest sporting event in the world unfolds, Amie's story belongs right in it, too. A walk-on pre-med student makes history for The Gambia.

"I'm kind of starting to get a little bit nervous," Barrow said. "I just raced this past weekend and I had some pretty good swims, so I think I'm in a good spot.

"When I'm at the pool and at practice, I think about it a lot. But then I feel like I've done a pretty good job of, when I'm not training, I can think about other things and do other things. I don't think about Paris constantly. I think that'd be stressful."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Nickel: Shorewood athlete will become first female swimmer representing The Gambia at Olympics